Distinguishing Imagery and Perception

Imagine these bananas

I’m having a hard time remembering a reference for an experiment I recall hearing about. Any help is appreciated.

As I recall the experiment, subjects were asked to look at a visual stimulus on a screen which was presented in variable degrees of faded-ness (with completely faded stimuli disappearing altogether). Subjects were also asked to imagine (form mental images of) the vanished stimuli as still being present on the screen. At some point in the experiment, there was some sort of measure of whether the subjects were seeing an actually present stimulus versus imagining one. I recall there being some result concerning the subjects not being terrific at distinguishing their own imagery from perceptions of the real deal.

Anyone know what I may be remembering? Or am I imagining this?

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on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 at 6:23 am and is filed under Cognitive Science, Notes to Selves.
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7 Responses to “Distinguishing Imagery and Perception”

This sounds like a study that I recently used in my essay “Painting the Other in Me: The Role of Imagination in Tolerance and Intolerance” (see my blog http://therelativeabsolute.blogspot.com/) The study appears in the article: Slusher, Morgan P. and Craig A. Anderson. “When Reality Monitoring Fails: The Role of Imagination in Stereotype Maintenance.” Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, Vol. 52, No. 4, (1987), 653-662. The study demonstrates that subjects imaginally confirmed as “real” what was not observed in the images presented.